Hospital managing director Andrew McLaughlin

EMPLOYING locums at the Hospital has reached its highest peak in four years despite warnings by UK specialist consultants about relying too heavily on temporary staff, it has been revealed.

A progress report by Verita, released today, found that an estimated 4,800 locum days were processed in 2010, compared to 2,902 in 2006.

That is despite investigators, used in 2009 to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of staff nurse Elizabeth Rourke in 2006, warning that use of such staff needed to be minimised by tackling the underlying medical staffing problems.

However, Hospital managing director Andrew McLaughlin said that short-term locum use should decrease dramatically over the coming months because permanent medics were being recruited and that problems recruiting staff did not mean patients were at risk.

‘Every hospital you go to has locums,’ he added. ‘Locum usage is not a bad thing in itself and certain locums have been with us for a lot of years and the risks associated with Dr Moyano do not apply in their cases.

‘I get detailed figures on locum usage and some are filling in vacant posts so the cost is covered in the budget.’

• Full report in today’s JEP